SAGINAW, MI — South Jefferson on Saginaw's East Side was alive with live music, good eats and cheerful spectators for Jazz on Jefferson.

And while organizers didn't count the folks who threw on jackets and
braved the occasional drizzle for the June 5 street party, “I know we sold record numbers of our
strawberry shortcakes,” said Thomas Trombley, deputy director of the
Castle Museum of Saginaw County History.

“I know it was a great
crowd enjoying the New Reformation Band at First Congregational Church,
too. They were still going strong when I left the area after 9.”

The
festival began at 4 p.m. with the rededication of Michael Jeffers
Memorial Fountain and Park, drawing a few less than the 10,000 who
attended at the original dedication in 1906, said Kelly Ferchau.

Jeffers’
bust wore a laurel back then, she told the 40 or so who showed up the
ceremony, and roses and garlands of carnations filled the fountain as
schoolchildren assembled to sing patriotic songs in 1906.

Jeffers
was a wheeler and dealer back in the day, said Tom Mudd, often buying
and selling property in the same day as East Saginaw City grew. After
107 years, it is Jeffers’ park that remains, added Saginaw City Councilman Larry
Coulouris, pointing out where Sears and Roebuck, Ferris Bros. Furs and
Consumers Power once stood.

A restoration committee is committed to the Jeffers Fountain upkeep, said Tom Webb, shortly before Trombley, in the Civil War garb of a Yankee private, unveiled the marker now designating the site.

Then, with the Saginaw High School drum line leading the way, attention shifted to the Jefferson corridor, where a line was already forming for the prized shortcakes.

“Get up there quick before they sell out,” Art Schwan’s group urged him, before his daughter Sandy’s crews started assembling the sweet summer treats.

Along the closed street, classic cars stood like a chorus line, their hoods open to passersby. Music poured out of open doorways, bands like the Scott Tuttle group heading indoors with the threat of rain.

“We never miss this,” said Jim Gaertner, who with his wife Anne stopped by before heading to a meeting at Pit and Balcony Community Theatre.

“I wish we could stay for the New Reformation band; they’re going to be great. But there’s always so much going on.”

Janet Nash drew attention as she walked down Jefferson with Samson, a Bernese mountain dog, to catch her husband Jack performing with the Robert Lee Revue. Already a massive pup at 20 months old, Samson enjoys a good crowd, Nash said.

The Hill House was another popular destination, a stream of visitors imagining from the vestiges of grandeur what the lumber baron’s mansion once must have looked like.

“A woman stopped by who lived in one of the apartments there in the ‘60s,” said Leslie Tincknell. “She’s working with Tom Trombley, remembering what it was like.”

It was easy to imagine the bustle of South Jefferson in earlier days in a festival that turns the once-busy thoroughfare into Saginaw’s front porch for the night.